1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the art of forming a stack of crop material bales and, more particularly, is concerned with a method and apparatus for positioning bales in alternating and interlocking tier patterns on a bale wagon in forming a two and one-half bale wide stack of bales.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is accepted present day practice to form bales of crop material such as hay or the like into stacks through the employment of an automatic bale wagon. The wagons presently generally available come in two basic sizes, namely two wide and three wide machines. In a two wide machine, the bale wagon is capable of forming a stack having a width equal to the length of two bales. Similarly, a three wide bale wagon is capable of forming a stack having a width equal to the length of three bales.
Each of the commonly used two wide and three wide machines has a first table which accumulates two or three bales being arranged end-to-end, a second table which receives bales from the first table and accumulates a plurality of layers, such as four, five or six layers, of two or three bales each, which plurality of layers are commonly called a tier of bales, and a third table or load bed which receives the tiers from the second table and accumulates a plurality of the tiers, for example seven, to form a stack thereon. Once the stack has been accumulated on the load bed, it may be unloaded by pivoting the load bed 90.degree. and depositing the stack on the ground or the like with the first tier of bales which was previously accumulated on the second table now being the lowermost tier of the stack in contact with the ground surface.
In order to enhance the stability of the stack, it is generally desirable to provide one or more tie tiers within the stack, such being tiers having individual bales arranged to overlap two bales in adjacent tiers above and below the tie tier. This can be done either manually or automatically during formation of the stack on the bale wagon, for example, in the manner illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,814 or in U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,519.
However, one disadvantage of both of the presently available two wide and three wide bale wagons is that under certain crop and terrain conditions, even the tied stacks formed by these wagons do not have the desired stability and weathering characteristic. This is apparently caused by continuous vertical splits or cleavage planes which sometimes form between bales in the stacks of these wagons and are only partially interrupted by the few tie tiers being interposed within the stacks. The presence of such splits or cleavage planes is particularly detrimental to the stability of stacks formed of bales of slippery crop material, such as coastal bermuda grass, or to the stability of stacks unloaded from the bale wagon onto uneven or hillside terrain. In order to prevent these stacks from occasionally toppling over as they weather at a storage location, it is usually necessary to provide stack poles about the stack in engagement with the ground and the sides of the stack to prop up the stack sides. The presence of such splits or cleavage planes down through the stack also diminishes the weatherability of the stack by allowing moisture to penetrate down through the stack which results in a higher degree of crop material spoilage than when the moisture is restricted solely to the outer surface of the stack.
Another disadvantage of both the two wide and three wide bale wagons is that they are not adapted to provide the optimum bale capacity in a stack within the maximum highway width limitations of the laws of certain jurisdictions, such as some European countries, where the maximum width allowed is approximately two and one-half meters. Specifically, the three wide wagon and its stack both exceed the two and one-half meter highway width maximum limit, while the two wide wagon and its stack fail to utilize all of the space available within this maximum limit.